Geschreven door Francine Smink | February 15, 2016
“Laws and practical issues are in the way of dreams and acts. The famous Belgian writer Elsschot referred to marriage in these lines, not about the customer service at town halls, but his statement is also relevant to this area. It is however also true in that area. ‘Excellent service’ means working with/ works for is also, in fact, working with people as well.
It has been shown that service can go very wrong however. In the summer of 2015, a resident of the Dutch city of Raalte came to collect her passport. When she tried to pay for it, it turned out that the town hall no longer accepted cash payments. The woman had a negative balance on her account so she wasn’t able to pay and returned home without a passport. A big fuss was the consequence.
C’est le ton
The board of the town hall in Raalte had decided to go cashless. Exceptions were allowed, but the employee who helped the woman did not act accordingly. The ins and outs of this case do not really matter, but the fact remains: we're all human beings. The fuss in Raalte could have been prevented if the employee had acted differently at that particular moment. Maybe it was a question of tone: things go often wrong because of the way in which people are treated at the front desk instead of the actual message they receive. Service means working with people (even though the government is investing in expansion of digital service), and this is even more true in the case of excellent service.
Culture shift
Research in Amsterdam has shown that telephone contact determines the citizens’ satisfaction by 58%: a good reason for municipalities to support those employees the best way way possible. An ‘excellent service provider’ is often a trained service provider. No one becomes excellent without a little effort. Skills require maintenance, even (especially!) if the employees don’t think a training is necessary. Even though the citizens’ satisfaction regarding government services rises, employees who know when to be flexible with laws and practical issues in order to provide excellent service, are worth their weight in gold.
Are you looking for a way to insert excellent service in your town hall? Check out our training subjects below!
